Double murder suspect cries for bail

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WINDHOEK - Lukas Nepela Nikodemus, the man charged with the murder and burning of two young women at a rubbish dump in Pionierspark suburb in Windhoek, wants the Windhoek High Court to release him on bail pending his trial.
His official bail hearing will start tomorrow in the Windhoek High Court before High Court Judge Petrus Unengu and is set down for two days.

The main trial of Nikodemus is set down to start on October 22 and continue on October 25 and 26 and then again from November 12 to 16.

Nikodemus is now represented by Mbanga Siyomunji after he fired two previous lawyers.
He is charged with two counts of murder, one count of defeating or obstructing or attempting to defeat or obstruct the course of justice and one count of failing to lock away a firearm. The State alleges Nikodemus, 47, killed 29-year-old Johanie Naruses and 23-year-old Clementia de Wee during the period 06 to 07 January 2016 and set their dead bodies alight.

The partly burned bodies were found by a security guard on the morning of January 7, 2016 and Nikodemus was arrested the same day after a SIM card that linked him to the crime was found in the back pocket of the jeans of one of the deceased.
Nikodemus was found fit to stand trial after his first legal aid lawyer Milton Engelbrecht requested the magistrate’s court to send him for mental observation as he was not able to consult with Nikodemus to mount a proper defence.
Engelbrecht later withdrew from the case citing irreconcilable differences with accused.

State psychiatrist Ndahambelela Mthoko, who conducted the mental observation, informed the court that Nikodemus does not have a history of mental illness.

She further said that during the period Nikodemus was under observation at the Forensic Psychiatric Unit of Windhoek Central Hospital, he showed no signs or symptoms of mental illness.
During his first appearance in the magistrate’s court, Nikodemus told the magistrate he did not know how to plead as he has no recollection of what happened.